![\"Artist](\"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/images\/19-0329-Britney-Penouilh-696x522.jpg\")
\nThe Visitors Center is at 90942 Kelso Cima Rd, Kelso, CA 92309 and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Monday, March 29 \u2013 June 30, 2019.<\/p>\n
KELSO, Calif., March 29, 2019\u00a0(SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Mojave National Preserve is presenting \u201cEarth Through Time: Providence Mountains and the Mojave National Preserve,\u201d a solo, mixed media exhibition of paintings, etchings and installation art at the Desert Light Gallery, Kelso Visitors Center, by nationally celebrated National Park Service Artist in Residence, Britney Penouilh.<\/p>\n
\nThe Visitors Center is at 90942 Kelso Cima Rd, Kelso, CA 92309 and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Monday, March 29 \u2013 June 30, 2019.<\/p>\n
Penouilh\u2019s work is a captivating series of visual monologues embracing the dynamism of a changing landscape as viewed through \u201cgeologic time.\u201d Based in Los Angeles, a trained geologist, an accomplished artist and a Magna Cum Laude graduate of New Orleans University, Britney\u2019s exhibit references 650 million years of transmutation in the Mojave\u2019s Providence Mountains. Her paintings feature environmental tropes that associate land changes with surface techniques that are additive and reductive.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer creative process is engaging and mimics the earth processes of deposition and erosion,\u201d notes Bob Killen, Mojave National Preserve Artist Foundation President. \u201cAs you traverse the gallery, each piece provides a compelling visual narrative that illustrates the history of the land and man\u2019s early and current intersection with Mojave geology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britney Penouilh invested a year exploring the back country of the Mojave National Preserves\u2019 Providence Mountains. \u201cI developed the exhibit through exploration,\u201d she explains, \u201cresearch with park service staff, and while hiking with my camera during golden hour, I journaled each day and concepts evolved into sketches. Over the term of my residency, I worked on translating how the Eastern California Shear Zone shaped the Mojave, and the Mojave shaped man (and woman).”<\/p>\n
![\"Britney](\"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/images\/19-0329-mojave-Joshua-Tree-696x522.jpg\")
\nThe diversity of the exhibit artwork exceeds the term, \u201cMixed Media.\u201d For example, the process of her paintings include selected pages from Michel Digonnet\u2019s book \u201cHiking the Mojave Desert\u201d \u2014 she oiled, burned and collaged the pages on to wooden panels \u2014 paint and plaster are layered, applied and removed mimicking erosion of the land. Areas of her exhibit that would be appreciated only as complimentary texture are something more\u2014 it is the thing itself. Other visual monologues include strips of fabric that hang from wall-mounted hands and the ceiling, gracefully casting shadows as it draws from a space of sinister stalagmites and stalactites within the Mitchell Caverns.<\/p>\n
Britney also created plaster hands, which gesture uplift of the land, while grated sheet metal in a hidden wall mount bisects impressionistic mountains, indicative of the intrusive bodies of hot granitic magma that once formed ore deposits of iron, gold, silver, and lead. It is these ore deposits that are responsible for producing the most profitable mines in Eastern California. Other sculptural works include a wall installation of naturally occurring minerals cast in polymer gypsum and a set of hands holding silicone cast bird feathers in a piece that signifies the Mojave people as a people of Dreams.<\/p>\n
![\"Britney](\"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/images\/19-0329-Mojave-People-696x522.jpg\")
\n“Mixed Media is a challenging art discipline,\u201d says Gabe Thorburn, who Directs the Artists in Residence Selection program. \u201cBritney\u2019s art achieves a cohesive resonance between each piece to create a whole experience,\u201d he says. \u201cVisitors to the Desert Light Gallery and the Mojave will find themselves deeply engaged in this show because Britney\u2019s introspection and talented hands have created a deep appreciation for the Earth Through Time for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Event information: https:\/\/www.mojaveair.org\/artist-in-residence\/the-desert-light-gallery\/<\/a><\/p>\n Learn more about the Mojave National Preserve Artist Foundation at: https:\/\/www.mojaveair.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n